Former Michigan Tight End Jake Butt Explains How Jim Harbaugh Uses NCAA Grey Area To Get Players More Practice

Jim Harbaugh is one of one. The 59-year-old college football coach at the University of Michigan marches to the beat of his own drum.

He does things his way, and doesn't care about outside opinions toward him or his program. And for the most part, Harbaugh's unique style has worked!

The Wolverines have won less than ten games just three times during his eight-year tenure, and one of those seasons was the weird COVID year. So really just twice.

Michigan has reached the College Football Playoff in back-to-back years and will look to keep that momentum rolling into 2023.

Jim Harbaugh and Michigan have made two-straight CFP appearances.(Photo by Alika Jenner/Getty Images)

Harbaugh's offense is highlighted by one of the best running back duos in the country. The defense is deeper and more experienced on the interior, an area in which it struggled last fall.

All of this goes to say that Harbaugh has had success with the Wolverines. What's his secret?

Jim Harbaugh uses rules to his advantage.

Harbaugh has always stepped outside of the box while playing within the rules. Whether it was increasing the number of satellite camps, or holding recruiting sleepovers, he is innovative.

NFL tight end Jake Butt, who played at Michigan from 2013 to 2016, recently pulled back the curtain on another way that Harbaugh used the system to his advantage. He gets players more practice during spring ball by stepping out of the "norm."

By NCAA rules, each program is allocated four hours of practice per day. Most schools set it up to be 90 minutes of meetings and 150 minutes of practice.

Harbaugh went a different route. He confirmed with the NCAA that all four allocated practice hours could be spent on the field. They can.

And then there is the loophole...

The rule does not allow just four practice hours per day per team. It is four practice hours per day per player.

This is where Harbaugh used the undefinied grey area to get his guys more reps.

So he divided the team into 2- an A and a B team. The B team would practice by themselves for two hours from 1-3 pm. Then the A team would join them from 3-5 for two hours. By then the individuals on the B team had completed their 4 hours, so the A team stayed out for the last 2 hours by themselves.
That meant the coaches were out for 6 hours total coaching both teams. We got an insane amount of reps.
He’d call us up at the 3 hour mark and make a point: he didn’t need 100 guys. If you didn’t want to be here then don’t be here. He needed 30 warriors. 11 on offense. 11 on defense. And a few more in special teams. We could win with that. The 4 hour practices, and it’s a point I’ve emphasized on here, we’re a psychological experiment.
Everyone says they want to win, everyone says they want to play in the NFL. Everyone says they want to contribute. In that fourth hour your words meant nothing and it became clear who could be counted on.
That first spring, to me, is the first instance of belief being instilled into the renewed Michigan program. There is a price to success. We didn’t achieve the ultimate success, but what I love about the current program is how they embrace challenge. The guys don’t blind. The leadership is phenomenal. It’s organic. Those kind of things can’t be quantified or measured, but it’s clear as day when you see it.

The spring practice period was not the only instance in which Harbaugh used undefined rules to get ahead. Butt also detailed the legality of a unique play that Michigan rolled out against Penn State.

Harbaugh does things differently. And it doesn't matter how weird his approach to the game might look from the outside, the results speak for themselves!